


Not too much, maybe just enough

by chorttletini



Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, F/F
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-04-11
Updated: 2015-04-13
Packaged: 2018-03-22 07:11:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,906
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3719833
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chorttletini/pseuds/chorttletini
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“I’m sorry, I didn’t realize there were assigned seats.” The girl apologized. She did it so quietly that Clarke felt herself lean towards her. </p>
<p>To hear better. </p>
<p>Not because of any spontaneous burst of endearment Clarke felt for the timid girl beginning to pack up her belongings. </p>
<p>or</p>
<p>"That's not your seat" AU</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Day 1

It’s only the second week of classes and Clarke is running late.

She sighs and pulls her blue military jacket tighter over her cream coloured camisole. It was only early September but there was already enough of a bite in the air that Clarke had to consider switching up her outerwear to something less fashionable and more practical. Her messenger bag slipped down to her elbow and she struggled to balance her coffee in her hand and shoulder her bag at the same time. She promised herself that this semester would be better than last semester. That _she_ would be better than last semester.

Clarke had started her first year of pre-med at Atlantic Royal King’s University one year ago. She had been warned by the faculty of her high school that there would be an adjustment period once she entered university.

She took heed of this warning and had spent all her time during her first semester at the ARK studying, studying and studying some more. Her 4.0 GPA after finals had boosted her confidence to the point where she felt she could loosen up a little. She started skipping classes just to stay in bed and joining her roommate, Raven, at parties on the weekends.

Before Clarke knew it, she had made a whole new group of friends. Her new support system made her feel at home and Clarke felt happier than she had ever been.

Her new social life, however, had a negative effect on her grades and she finished her winter semester with more Bs than As. Bs weren’t that big a deal, that is, unless you want to get into Med school.

Which Clarke did.

Sort of.

Technically her mom wanted her to go to Med school and Clarke didn’t hate the idea.

At the very least she didn’t have a better one at the moment.

So here Clarke was, vowing to find a balance between her social and academic life, and failing miserably.

She had planned to have an early night last night, but when she returned to her dorm room she found her roommate visibly upset.

It turned out Raven had called it quits with her High School boyfriend, Finn, and had been in desperate need of a girls night in. Both Finn and Raven agreed that the break up was long overdue but that didn’t stop Raven from feeling sad. She and Finn had been friends their whole lives and had started dating sophomore year of high school. Finn had gone West after they graduated and Raven had headed East towards the ARK. The distance had grown to be too much for their relationship to handle and the two had simply grown apart.

Clarke was secretly pleased that Raven was finally single. Clarke was tired of waking up after parties with a hangover and the added knowledge she was the only one with the regret of having made out with some random stranger the night before. Raven would tease her about it but Clarke could tell Raven wanted to experience the single college life.

And if single Raven cutting loose took some of the heat off Clarke for her many drunken hook ups, then that would just be a plus.

 The two roommates had stayed up until 2am watching movies, eating ice cream and vowing to stay single until they were 30. Clarke had a blast just laughing and talking with Raven but when her alarm went off at 8 in the morning, the sleep-addled girl had snoozed her way into her current predicament.

Said predicament being: Clarke hustling to her first class of the day, already 5 minutes late.

English was a required course for all programs of study at the ARK and Clarke hated it. She had been terrible at English in high school and thought that picking a science major would free her of the world of synonyms, symbolism and shakespeare.

She was sadly mistaken.

Clarke had put off the requirement in her first year but her academic advisor had warned her that if she failed to complete the course she wouldn’t graduate. Clarke had tried to argue that English majors didn’t have to take biology to graduate so the reverse shouldn’t be true. She had been shut down.

Something about professionals in every field needing to be able to form a proper sentence.

Whatever.

Clarke burst into the Thelonious Jaha building (who were the jack asses that got university buildings named after them anyway?) and took a moment to suck air down her dry throat and into her lungs.

Another aspect of her life that being a party animal had altered was her physical fitness. Not that she was extremely active before, but she could certainly speed walk for 15 minutes through campus without seeing spots. And what was with the copper taste in her mouth?

That couldn’t be good.

Is she dying?

Clarke eyes the art majors milling about on the couches near the entrance. Of course she’d die in the fucking Jaha building, surrounded by hipsters, art she didn’t understand, and 10$ coffees. Clarke had coffee too but that had been two dollars at the kiosk outside her dorm.

Much less pretentious.

By the time Clarke had finished casting judgement on her surroundings she realized she had caught her breath and wasn’t dying. She started towards her classroom and glanced at the clock.

8 minutes late.

Could be worse.

And the door was still open!

Success.

Clarke breezed into the classroom noting Professor Kane wasn’t here yet.

Another score.

She let out a little victory laugh and pumped her fist before realizing she was in front of the rest of the class. She looked to the back of the room and grinned at Monty.

After her failed attempt at talking her way out of English, Clarke decided to make the best of a bad situation and find a friend in her class. Most of her friends had completed the mandatory course in their first semester, but Monty had put it off as well.

He was, however, planning on doing it in the afternoon instead of the morning, but that didn’t work with Clarke’s courses. She had a mandatory Bio lab at 1pm so it only made sense that she take English in the 9am slot. Clarke gently… coerced Monty into changing around his entire schedule.

It was for his benefit too!

Who didn’t like having a friend in their class?

Exactly.

Clarke’s smile fell a little when she noticed Monty grimace and shrug in her direction. In response to Clarke’s confused look, Monty gestured to his right with his head. Clarke shuffled down the aisle of desks a little bit to see the problem and, as she got closer, a student who had been hunched under her desk digging through her bookbag sat up and came into Clarke’s view.

Ah so this was Monty’s problem! This previously hidden girl was sitting in Clarke’s desk.

Well that’s an easy fix.

Clarke would simply (and politely) ask the girl to move from her desk.  

Well, technically, the seats weren’t assigned but this was the desk Clarke had been sitting in all last week. Wasn’t there some sort of unwritten rule of ownership or something?

Yes there definitely was, and this girl was breaking it.  

Clarke cleared her throat to make her presence in front of the other girl known.

The girl looked up at Clarke, seemingly a little surprised to see her. The Desk Stealer’s grey-green eyes were wide and questioning as they gazed up at Clarke. The invader was chewing gently on a pen, drawing attention to her full lips.

In a totally non-distracting way that wasn’t affecting Clarke at all.

Who did this parasite think she was? Her hair made up about half her body. Long, brown and wild with curls, billowing down over a loose white tshirt, almost reaching the leggings encasing the girl’s long legs.

Scoff.

Get a haircut, lady.

It was the other girl’s turn to clear her throat. Shit, how long had Clarke been starring?

The girl had her brow furrowed and slowly cocked her head to the side with a small smile on her face.

Right.

Focus.

“This isn’t your seat.” Clarke barked. It was a little louder than she had intended and the other girl looked visibly startled.

Whatever, no reason to waste time with pleasantries.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t realize there were assigned seats.” The girl apologized. She did it so quietly that Clarke felt herself lean towards her.

To hear better.

Not because of any spontaneous burst of endearment Clarke felt for the timid girl beginning to pack up her belongings.

“Well technically the desks aren’t assigned, but-” Clarke began to explain but she was interrupted.

“So what makes this desk yours then?” The girls voice was stronger than before and she had raised a single eyebrow waiting for Clarke’s explanation. The challenge behind her voice made Clarke’s stomach quiver. Was there any trait this girl could possess that wouldn’t excite Clarke?

Get a grip, Griffin. You have a principle to defend.

“Well, as I was about to say,” Clarke rolled her eyes and looked over to Monty for his support with how unreasonable this beautiful girl was being. The boy had his body angled away from the scene as though he was pretending not to know Clarke at all.

Rude.

“This is the desk I’ve been sitting in since the first day of classes,” Clarke continued.  “It’s right next to my good friend, Monty, here.” She said the last part a little louder so that her classmates knew that Monty was her friend.

No matter how desperately he was trying to hide it.

“So, you’ve been sitting here for...3 classes? And you think that gives you ownership over this desk?” The girl was sitting completely straight in her desk, crossing her legs. She was now sliding the pen slowly between her fingers as she looked at Clarke. Her eyes were lit up like she truly enjoyed the debate.

Weirdo.

“Well, no-” Clarke tried again but the girl cut in.

“No? Ok what is it then, did you mark your territory? Carve your name into the wood somewhere I can’t see?” The seated girl made a show of looking all around the desk for Clarke’s nonexistent name. Seriously how annoying could this goddess be?

“Unless,” the girl continued, “is your name ‘Paul is a shithead’? That’s a really pretty name. It suits you. ” Clarke eyed the vandalism the other girl was gesturing to. The words were marked on the side of the desk with black permanent marker. Clarke heaved a deep sigh. She would have to try a different tactic to convince this visual anomaly of a young woman to move.

“My name is Clarke, actually.” Faux innocence coated Clarke’s tone as she continued, “English really isn’t my best subject and I would really, _really_ appreciate you being an adult and letting me sit next to my friend so that he can help me when I need it” Clarke finished her speech in one breath and flashed her sweetest smile and her best puppy dog eyes.

What she said wasn’t exactly true. Monty struggled with English just as much as Clarke. But this stranger didn’t know that.

Unfortunately, Clarke could tell by the smirk on the other girls face that she hadn’t been successful in swaying her.

“Well, Clarke,” the other girl drawled, taking easily 20 minutes to finish saying Clarke’s name.

Seriously? It’s one syllable how was it possible to draw it out so much? And if this girl’s mouth could handle Clarke’s name so tenderly what else was it capable of doing?

This line of crucial questioning came to a halt when Clarke realized the other girl was still speaking.

“If you struggle so much in this class, maybe you should sit in the vacant seat in the front row so that you can _really_ pay attention.” Clarke was struggling to come up with something to refute that logic when the other girl continued.

“And to be honest you can’t expect to show up 10 minutes late to class and just take a desk that someone’s already sitting in. Especially since you clearly had time to stop for a coffee.” The girl punctuated her point with what appeared to be a mockery of Clarke’s previous puppy dog expression.

Clarke had a funny feeling it wasn’t as adorable on her own face but shook off the idea and looked to the empty seat in the front of the room.

Unacceptable

“To be honest,” Clarke mocked,  “how about you sit in the fucking seat you’ve been sitting in for every other class so far?” Clarke had quit her half-assed attempt at winning this girl over with kindness as she felt herself losing this argument.

And her mind.

The girl grinned at Clarke’s clear loss of patience and offered her explanation, “This is my first day, I just transferred from the 1pm slot. My ex-girlfriend is in that class. It was a little awkward.”

Wait. 

Clarke’s throat went dry at the mention of an ex-girlfriend. All of a sudden she was assaulted with images of this beauty wrapped up with another woman.

A faceless woman.

A completely anonymous female body.  

Definitely not Clarke.

Wait.

Clarke startled as she replayed the rest of what the other girl had said.

“Aha! So you’re the late one! You can’t just show up a week late and expect to steal my desk-”

“Ms. Griffin please take a seat. I’m sorry I’m late, class. No sense in wasting time with excuses, let’s begin.” Prof Kane stated as he made his way to his desk, removing his bag and coat.

Clarke rolled her eyes and headed to the front of the room. How was it okay for Kane to be as late as he chooses but if she showed up late she’d be in trouble?

Well if Kane had been aware she’d shown up late she’d be in trouble.

Regardless.

As Clarke took her seat (front row fucking centre) she heard The Desk Thief whisper to Monty in the back of the class, “sorry about fighting with your friend. It probably would have been easier to just get up and move.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Monty whispered back. “She’s pretty stubborn, she gets tunnel vision when people disagree with her. It’s cool that you stood up to her. She’s the best, but sometimes she needs to be challenged.”

The girl smiled in response. She looked satisfied at Monty’s description of Clarke, like she had Clarke all figured out and she only needed Monty to confirm her suspicions. “I’m Lexa,” the other girl said sticking her hand out towards him.

“Monty” the boy responded, shaking Lexa’s hand. He turned to face forward as Kane started the lesson and was met with Clarke’s furious glare. He sunk down out of sight and Clarke spun around to face the front.

Professor Kane’s lesson went over Clarke’s head as she spent the remaining 30 minutes of class mentally fuming at Monty for fraternizing with the enemy.

And not at all thinking about how Lexa was the sexiest name she’d heard in her entire life. 


	2. Day 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Good morning, Clarke.” Lexa drawled. She had a look on her face that informed Clarke just how predictable Lexa found her. 
> 
> “Lexa. You’re quite the early riser.” Clarke deadpanned in response as she made her way to the position she found herself stuck in two days ago. 
> 
> Not in, but directly in front of, her desk.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wanted to post this on Sunday, but I was super hungover. 
> 
> Anyways, here's chapter 2! 
> 
> It starts on Monday afternoon and skips ahead to Wednesday. jsyk

Clarke got out of her Biology lab a little before 3:00. She stuffed her lab coat into her book bag and pulled her phone out of the front pouch. She had a couple of texts from Monty asking if Clarke was upset about him talking to Lexa and explaining that he was just trying to be polite.

Clarke rolled her eyes.

She was about to answer and dismiss his worries when she received a text from Raven.

The text was to inform Clarke that her roommate, and several of their friends, were currently at Bellamy’s and were planning on ordering pizza for supper.

Bellamy was a senior at the ARK and had an off campus apartment with his friend John Murphy. Murphy worked nights as a security guard for a nearby strip mall so Clarke didn’t really see the boy a lot, except when he was yelling at them to be quiet so he could get some sleep.

Clarke and her friends spent most of their time at Bellamy’s because it was bigger than any of their dorm rooms and they could drink without fear of snooping RA’s.

Clarke had become good friends with Bellamy’s sister, Octavia, over the course of last semester. This girl had stood out during student orientation as a clear party girl and was constantly organizing social events through their dorm building.

Raven had bonded with Octavia when Clarke refused to have any fun in her first semester, but the three girls had become inseparable once Clarke loosened up.

She quickly fired off a text to her friend, Jasper, knowing that he got out of class at three on Mondays and asked him to drive her to Bellamy’s.

Jasper’s grandmother had gifted him with her car when she had elected to move into a retirement community and wouldn’t need to drive anymore.

This present made Jasper the only one of Clarke’s broke friends to have his own transportation and thus put him in high demand.

Jasper texted back saying he would pick Clarke up in twenty minutes and she did a mini celebration dance.

She hated public transportation.  

Clarke made her way back to her dorm and dropped off her book bag and freshened up her appearance slightly. She’d had a long day and she’d almost forgotten about the seating disaster in English this morning.

Almost.

Clarke grimaced at the memory of the smug girl. Cool, calm and collected, treating Clarke like something to be handled.

Taken care of.

Clarke began plotting how to ensure the coveted seat remained hers for the rest of the semester when she received a text from Jasper saying that he was parked outside her building.

Clarke quickly stripped off her jacket and pulled one of Raven’s oversized grey hoodies over her head.

She was in the mood to be comfortable.

Clarke grabbed her keycard and her wallet and quickly made her way out her building and hopped into Jasper’s beige Toyota Corolla.

Sick.

“Hey Jas!” Clarke greeted but the boy held up a finger to her indicating that he was on the phone.

“Ye-...yes...yup…hold on” Jasper struggled to agree with whoever was on the phone and turned towards Clarke and placed his hand over the screen of his iPhone.

It was more of a gesture than anything, Clarke doubted Jasper was actually blocking any sound with his arbitrary hand placement.

“Monty wants to know if you’re mad at him.” Jasper said clearly annoyed that this conversation couldn’t wait until they arrived at Bellamy’s and he didn’t have to be the middleman.

“Oh, obviously not!” Clarke said loud enough to be heard over the phone, “I just forgot to text you back after my lab, that’s all.”

“Did you hear that?” Jasper asked putting the phone back up to his ear, listening to whatever Monty had to say next.

“He wants to know if you’re sur-”

Clarke grabbed the phone from Jasper before he could continue.

“I love you, Monty! We’ll see you in literally 5 minutes.” Clarke ended the call and handed the phone back to Jasper.

“Onward, Jasper!” Clarke declared as she began fiddling with the radio, settling on top forty. She laid her head against the cool window and tuned out Jasper’s off key singing of a Katy Perry song she couldn’t remember the name to.

****  
  


When the pair arrived at Bellamy’s they were greeted with the familiar sound of their friends arguing over pizza toppings.

“Hawaiian pizza is a crime against nature and the fact that you’re suggesting it is making me rethink our entire friendship”

Raven was clearly very heated about the issue at hand.

“Look you’re just being close minded, you can’t be afraid to try new things. Sweet and meat go good together!” Octavia replied breezily as she began dialling the number of a near by pizza place.

“I mean take, Lincoln,” Octavia continued, gesturing to her boyfriend sitting on a stool at the kitchen island, “he’s sweet but that doesn’t mean-”

“I’m not comfortable with where this is going.” Bellamy cut in.

“Yeah me neither, plus doesn’t Jasper not eat meat?” Lincoln asked.

He was new to the group so he assumed that Jasper’s vegetarianism was a long term commitment based on strong personal convictions.

As opposed to a week long ploy to attract his animal-loving flavor of the week in his Medieval Studies course.

“Why don’t we get one pizza with half-hawaiian/half-veggie, and one meat lover’s pizza?” Clarke supplied.

She wondered how this group made any decisions at all before she entered their lives.

“Works for me.” Octavia shrugged and moved away from her friends to make the phone call somewhere quiet.   

“So, Griffin, heard you got your ass handed to you in English this morning.” Bellamy said with a grin.

The boy knew exactly how to push Clarke’s buttons but she was very good at not getting riled up when he teased her.

Well, except for right now.

“Actually, Blake, I didn’t get my ass handed to me. I had my human right’s infringed upon by some nobody in a course I don’t even want to be in. And instead of supporting me, my friends are cavorting with my nemesis and making fun of me in what is supposed to be a safe space.”

Bellamy’s face was a mixture of shock and delight.

“Well, Princess, you have officially gone off the deep end, good luck with that!” Bellamy said as he raised a beer in a toast to her meltdown.

“What’s all the drama about, Clarke?” Octavia asked as she returned from her call with the pizza place.

“Some girl sat in my seat in English today and these so called friends of mine don’t think it’s a big deal!”

“They  _don’t_  think it’s a big deal?!”

“See! Octavia agrees with me” Clarke said, looking pointedly at Monty and Bellamy.

Clarke saw Octavia and Raven exchange amused grins and chose to ignore it.

“Say, Monty,” Raven asked slyly. “Is this girl… I don’t know… attractive, by any chance?”

Clarke rolled her eyes. Ever since spring break when she brought a sorority girl back to their hotel room, her friends decided that she had the hots for every girl she interacted with.

As if.

The only thing she felt for Lexa was distaste for the unjust way the girl had treated her.

That and an after taste of indifference.

Who even cared about Lexa anyway? Was Lexa even her name ? Was it Lisa?

 

Clarke couldn’t even remember, that’s how little she cared.

Monty sighed dreamily at Raven’s question. “She’s probably the prettiest person I’ve ever seen in real life...present company excluded,” he said as he gestured to his friends. Octavia blew him a kiss in response.

“She just had this natural beauty to her, you know?” Clarke’s friends were all nodding with soft smiles as they leaned in and listened to Monty describe a random girl that none of them had ever met.

Idiots.

“She was like the human embodiment of a spring morning-”

“Oh for the love of God she was not that pretty!” Clarke roared.

For the second time today her words had come out much louder than she intended. Everyone went silent and stared at her.

The stern tone had done little to reprimand the group, though, and they all looked like they were on the verge of laughter.

“Say, Clarke, what’s it like in the land of denial” Jasper said placing a hand on Clarke’s shoulder.

She could say something in response to Jasper about how he was in denial when he thought he could get girls so far out his league they weren’t even playing the same sport, but she didn’t.

Clarke was much too good a person for that.

Instead, she shrugged his hand off of her shoulder and turned towards the bathroom.

“I’m going to go wash the school off my hands, feel free to keep making fun of me in my absence.”

The latest dramatic statement had Clarke’s friends laughing at her again.

Except for Lincoln who looked at her sympathetically.

Octavia was right, he was sweet.

Clarke would have to take Octavia’s word on whatever meat related comparison she was trying to make earlier.

****  
  


Later when the pizza arrived and the group of friends were all sitting around Bellamy’s coffee table eating, Monty piped up.

“So, Clarke, in Wednesday’s English class do you want me to sit in a different seat so we can sit together?”

Clarke had calmed down (slightly) since she’d had something to eat. Being hungry had always given her mood swings.

“No I don’t want you to sit somewhere else. I want us to sit in the seats we’ve always been sitting in.” Clarke whined.

“Always been sitting in... since last week.” Raven said under her breath to Bellamy.

Clarke decided to pretend she didn’t hear it.

“I just need a plan to take the desk from her… but what can I do?” Clarke thought aloud.

She was in the middle of concocting a rather convoluted plan (that was probably against most of the ARK’s code of conduct) when Octavia chimed in.

“Why don’t you just get there early enough to get the seat?” Octavia’s suggested unenthusiastically around a mouthful of pizza.

Clearly the girl didn’t understand her own brilliance.

“Of course!” Clarke crowed! “All I have to do is get there early and reclaim my rightful seat in the back of the class! This is perfect! Thank you, Octavia!”

Octavia was looking at Clarke with disbelief now but Clarke didn’t care. She had the perfect plan and come Wednesday morning Lexa’s hot ass would be anywhere but in Clarke’s favorite seat.

****  
  


Clarke sat up straight her bed at 7am Wednesday morning at the sound of her alarm blaring.

“What the fuck, Griffin?” Raven grumbled as she turned abruptly to face away from the noise and buried herself in her blankets.

“Sorry, sorry!” Clarke whispered as she shut off her alarm. “I needed to make sure I got an early start on the day so I can get to English with enough time to-”

“Oh my God, just get out!” Raven yelled and Clarke followed her order, grabbing her shower bag and a towel and heading to the dormitory showers.

She almost felt bad for Raven, but this was more important that her roommate’s sleep. This was about Clarke’s desk and everything it represented.

Clarke showered, enjoying that fact that no one else in her dorm seemed to be awake yet. Clarke usually showered during the 8:15 rush and this was a much more preferable experience.

She spent a little extra time on her hair and makeup than usual in preparation for a potential second standoff with Lexa.

The reason being that, if she felt confident in her appearance, that confidence would carry over into her overall demeanor.

Yeah.

That’s believable.

Clarke finished getting ready and made a quick stop back at her dorm to change her clothes.

Two death threats from Raven later, and Clarke was on her way to English class.

This was the first time this semester that Clarke didn’t feel dread at the thought of entering Prof Kane’s classroom.

What she felt now was more like nervous anticipation.

When Clarke arrived at the Jaha building she saw a custodian at the end of the hall, unlocking the doors to the classrooms in succession.

Okay, maybe Clarke was a little too early.

She would have an hour to kill once she got to class but Clarke figured she could do some of the assigned reading she had been putting off.

And plus it would be worth it to see the look on Lexa’s flawless face when she saw Clarke sitting in the seat.

As Clarke drew closer to the classroom she took a brief moment to consider that maybe Lexa didn’t care about the desk as much as she did. Maybe her resistance towards Clarke was more about not wanting to be told what to do, than the actual desk itself.

The falsehood of this idea was proven the instant Clarke entered her English classroom and saw Lexa sitting in Clarke’s desk with her nose buried in a book.

It wasn’t even a novel that Kane had assigned for class.

Could this girl  _be_  any worse?

She was wearing reading glasses today and Clarke willed herself to stop the sexy librarian fantasy before it started.

When Lexa heard Clarke enter, she lowered her book as the corners of her mouth turned up slightly.

“Good morning, Clarke.” Lexa drawled. She had a look on her face that informed Clarke of just how predictable Lexa found her.

“Lexa. You’re quite the early riser.” Clarke deadpanned in response and made her way to the position she found herself stuck in two days ago.

Not in, but directly in front of, her desk.

“Well I had a feeling that you’d be here a little early today too so I thought I’d come in and keep you company.”

Wow, how immature could this girl be?

Clarke wanted to reach forward and physically remove Lexa from the desk.

She wanted to snap those stupid glasses in half and toss the read-for-pleasure book in the garbage.

She wanted to press her face into Lexa’s long, delicate neck and inhale.

None of which Clarke figured she could get away with, so instead she sunk down in the desk directly in front of Lexa and began taking out her things.

“Where will the boy, who usually sits in that desk sit today, now that you’re sitting there Clarke?” Lexa asked absently.

Clarke could hear her turn the page of her book and she felt her blood pressure rise.

“I don’t give two fucks where he sits, and if he asks I’m going to blame it on the ripple effect your created by sitting in my damn desk!”

Clarke heard Lexa chuckle behind her and she tried to tamper down the butterflies the sound stirred in her belly.

To her mild disappointment, Lexa didn’t speak again and soon the other students were filing into the room to take their seats.

When Monty arrived 10 minutes before class was set to start he took one look at Clarke and Lexa’s seating arrangement and laughed openly.

“Good morning, Monty.” Lexa said casually.

Clarke could hear the smile in her voice.

As Monty returned Lexa’s greeting Professor Kane entered the room wheeling a television behind him.

Clarke clenched her hands into fists. Why exactly was she here if they were just going to watch a movie?

“Good morning, class,” Prof Kane greeted. “I managed to find a copy of a filmed stage production of ‘Winter’s Midnight’ and I thought it would be the perfect teaching tool to help you better understand the context of this novel.”

Clarke turned her book over in her hand and sure enough the title was “Winter’s Midnight”.

Jesus Christ.

Kane turned off the lights and, after a minor struggle with the primitive technology, managed to start the movie.

 

Clarke spent all of 5 minutes paying attention to the film, which she soon realized was a group of high school aged actors barely stammering their way through dialogue taken directly from the novel.

Clarke promptly tuned out.

She was in the middle of calculating just how much money she was wasting in this one singular 50 minute class when she felt something brush past the edge of her hair.

She decided that it was probably a book that Lexa had accidentally pushed into Clarke’s space and she didn’t feel like she needed to make a big deal out of it.

However, a few seconds later, Clarke felt a more confident brush of her hair and concluded that this invasion must be on purpose.

Clarke was about to turn around and tell Lexa to back off when she heard the other girl whisper.

“Do you mind?”

Do I mind what?

Is she asking if she can touch my hair?

Maybe she wants to play with it?

That’s weird.

 

Right?

We literally just met.

She must be bored, but still?

Despite Clarke’s inner panic she felt herself shake her head no.

She didn’t mind.

With Clarke’s consent Lexa began fiddling more purposefully with the ends of her hair.

Clarke began to glance around the room to see if anyone was noticing this odd behavior but it was either too dark for her classmates to see, or they were all already in an amateur-theatre induced coma.

Clarke wanted to glance back and see if Monty had noticed what was happening, but she was afraid that if she turned Lexa would stop.

After a few minutes of aimlessly twisting strands of hair, Lexa slowly ran her fingers from the base of Clarke’s neck almost to the crown of her head, raking gently through her hair.

  
Clarke was glad the lights were turned out because the unexpected sensation caused her eyes to roll back into her head.

If only the darkness could have covered up her embarrassing gasp.

It just felt really, really good.

Lexa wasn’t deterred due to Clarke’s (somewhat extreme) reaction.

She kept lightly scratching Clarke’s scalp and pulling her hair into loose braids and running her fingers through them to remove them.

The dark room (and the out of nowhere intimate moment with this total stranger) had Clarke’s heart beating hard.

She tried in vain not to breathe too deeply but could tell the boy in front of her was a little concerned.

He was attempting to subtly look over his shoulder to ascertain why Clarke was inhaling and exhaling like a perv.

Maybe she has a respiratory issue, did he ever think of that?

Jerk.

If possible, Clarke knew even less about the book by the end of the movie as the sweet torture of Lexa’s fingers had successfully turned Clarke’s brain to mush.

She had managed to somewhat get herself under control when Kane turned the lights on at the end of class.

Lexa sat up straight behind Clarke and stretched her arms high into the air to get rid of the kinks that leaning forward for 40 minutes had produced.

For the sake of Clarke’s sanity, she really wished she hadn’t turned around in time to see Lexa’s shirt pull up over her tight stomach with the movement of the stretch.   
  


But that’s life.

“Thanks for letting me braid your hair, Clarke,” Lexa said lazily. “It’s my favorite thing to do when I’m bored.”

Clarke tried to make a sound of affirmation but it came out as more of a cough/grunt.

“Alright, well I’ll see you Friday!” Lexa said throwing her bag over her shoulder and making her way around a facepalming Clarke and down the aisle.

“Hey, Clarke?”

“Yes, Monty?”

“Remember that time you let your “nemesis” play with your hair for almost an entire class?”

“Be quiet, Monty.” Clarke said without looking up.

While her chuckling friend made his way out of the class, Clarke mentally warred between continuing her quest for the desk (that is rightfully hers), or spending the rest of her life in the desk she’s sitting in now.

Just in case Lexa ever wanted to braid her hair again. 

****  
  



End file.
